The Chiwdren's Rights Movement is a historicaw and modern movement committed to de acknowwedgment, expansion, and/or regression of de rights of chiwdren around de worwd. It began in de earwy part of de wast century and has been an effort by government organizations, advocacy groups, academics, wawyers, wawmakers, and judges to construct a system of waws and powicies dat enhance and protect de wives of chiwdren, uh-hah-hah-hah.[1] Whiwe de historicaw definition of chiwd has varied, de United NationsConvention on de Rights of de Chiwd asserts dat "A chiwd is any human being bewow de age of eighteen years, unwess under de waw appwicabwe to de chiwd, majority is attained earwier."[2] There are no definitions of oder terms used to describe young peopwe such as "adowescents", "teenagers" or "youf" in internationaw waw.[3]

Now dat chiwd wabor had been effectivewy eradicated in parts of de worwd, de movement turned to oder dings, but it again stawwed when Worwd War II broke out and chiwdren and women began to enter de work force once more. Wif miwwions of aduwts at war, de chiwdren were needed to hewp keep de country running. In Europe, chiwdren served as couriers, intewwigence cowwectors, and oder underground resistance workers in opposition to Hitwer's regime.

The concept of chiwdren having particuwar rights is a rewativewy new one. Traditionaw attitudes towards chiwdren tended to consider dem as mere extensions of de househowd and 'owned' by deir parents and/or wegaw guardian, who exerted absowute parentaw controw.

Views began to change during de Enwightenment, when tradition was increasingwy chawwenged and de vawue of individuaw autonomy and naturaw rights began to be asserted.[4]

The Foundwing Hospitaw in London was founded in 1741 as a chiwdren's home for de "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young chiwdren". Thomas Spence, an Engwish powiticaw radicaw wrote de first modern defence of de naturaw rights of chiwdren in The Rights of Infants, pubwished in 1796.[5]

Wif de onset of de Industriaw Revowution, chiwdren as young as six began to be empwoyed in de factories and coaw mines in often inhumane conditions wif wong hours and wittwe pay. During de earwy 19f century dis expwoitation began to attract growing opposition, uh-hah-hah-hah. The terribwe conditions of de poor urban chiwdren was exposed to wiberaw middwe-cwass opinion, notabwy by de audor Charwes Dickens in his novew Owiver Twist. Sociaw reformers, such as de Lord Shaftesbury, began to mount a vigorous campaign against dis practice.

Amewiorating wegiswation was achieved wif a series of Factory Acts passed during de 19f century, where working hours for chiwdren were wimited and dey were no wonger permitted to work during de night.[6] Chiwdren younger dan nine were not awwowed to work and dose between 9-16 were wimited to 16 hours per day.[7][8] Factories were awso reqwired to provide education to de apprentices in reading, writing and aridmetic for de first four years.

An infwuentiaw sociaw reformer was Mary Carpenter, who campaigned on behawf of negwected chiwdren who had turned to juveniwe dewinqwency. In 1851 she proposed de estabwishment of dree types of schoows; free day schoows for de generaw popuwation, industriaw schoows for dose in need and reformatory schoows for young offenders.[9] She was consuwted by de drafters of educationaw biwws, and she was invited to give evidence before House of Commons committees.[10] In 1852 she estabwished a reformatory schoow at Bristow.[11]

In de United States, de Chiwdren's Rights Movement began wif de orphan train. In de big cities, when a chiwd's parents died or were extremewy poor, de chiwd freqwentwy had to go to work to support himsewf and/or his famiwy. Boys generawwy became factory or coaw workers, and girws became prostitutes or sawoon girws, or ewse went to work in a sweat shop. Aww of dese jobs paid onwy starvation wages.

In 1852, Massachusetts reqwired chiwdren to attend schoow. In 1853, Charwes Brace founded de Chiwdren's Aid Society, which worked hard to take street chiwdren in, uh-hah-hah-hah. The fowwowing year, de chiwdren were pwaced on a train headed for de West, where dey were adopted, and often given work. By 1929, de orphan train stopped running awtogeder, but its principwes wived on, uh-hah-hah-hah.

The Nationaw Chiwd Labor Committee, an organization dedicated to de abowition of aww chiwd wabor, was formed in de 1890s. It managed to pass one waw, which was struck down by de Supreme Court two years water for viowating a chiwd's right to contract his work. In 1924, Congress attempted to pass a constitutionaw amendment dat wouwd audorize a nationaw chiwd wabor waw. This measure was bwocked, and de biww was eventuawwy dropped. It took de Great Depression to end chiwd wabor nationwide; aduwts had become so desperate for jobs dat dey wouwd work for de same wage as chiwdren, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 1938, President Frankwin D. Roosevewt signed de Fair Labor Standards Act which, amongst oder dings, pwaced wimits on many forms of chiwd wabor.[12]

The Powish educationawist Janusz Korczak wrote of de rights of chiwdren in his book How to Love a Chiwd (Warsaw, 1919); a water book was entitwed The Chiwd's Right to Respect (Warsaw, 1929). In 1917, fowwowing de Russian Revowution, de Moscow branch of de organization Prowetkuwt produced a Decwaration of Chiwdren's Rights.[13]

Her experiences dere and water in Russia, wed her to bewieve dat de rights of a chiwd needed be especiawwy protected and enforced, and her stipuwations consisted of de fowwowing criteria:

The chiwd must be given de means reqwisite for its normaw devewopment, bof materiawwy and spirituawwy.

The chiwd dat is hungry must be fed, de chiwd dat is sick must be nursed, de chiwd dat is backward must be hewped, de dewinqwent chiwd must be recwaimed, and de orphan and de waif must be shewtered and succored.

The chiwd must be de first to receive rewief in times of distress.

The chiwd must be put in a position to earn a wivewihood, and must be protected against every form of expwoitation, uh-hah-hah-hah.

The chiwd must be brought up in de consciousness dat its tawents must be devoted to de service of its fewwow men, uh-hah-hah-hah.

This manifesto was adopted by de Internationaw Save de Chiwdren Union and endorsed by de League of Nations Generaw Assembwy in 1924 as de Worwd Chiwd Wewfare Charter.[16] In 1925, de first Internationaw Chiwd Wewfare Congress was hewd in Geneva, where de Decwaration was widewy discussed and supported by organisations and governments.

Many countries have created an institute of chiwdren's rights commissioner or ombudsman, de first being Norway in 1981. Oders incwude Finwand, Sweden, and Ukraine, which was de first country worwdwide to instaww a chiwd in dat post in 2005.

In 2005, in order to impwement de UN Convention on de Rights of de Chiwd, nationaw Law for de Integraw Protection of Chiwdren and Adowescents was enacted. This not onwy awwows for protective measures for chiwdren, but awso created de groundwork for a juveniwe justice system. This system awwows for chiwdren to be integrated back into society and estabwished tactics to protect chiwdren from abuse and expwoitation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[19]

Braziw is a founding member of de UN and a signatory of de Universaw Decwaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by Generaw Assembwy resowution in 1948. The Universaw Decwaration of de Rights of de Chiwd emphasizes dat moderhood and chiwdhood are entitwed to speciaw care and dat chiwdren born out of wedwock are awwowed de same sociaw protection, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 1990, Braziw approved de UN Convention on de Rights of de Chiwd and fuwwy incorporated it onto Braziw’s positive waw.[19]

China has ratified many internationaw documents wif regard to chiwdren’s rights protection, incwuding de 1989 Convention on Rights of de Chiwd,[19] de Optionaw Protocow to de Convention on Rights of Chiwd on de Sawe of Chiwdren, Chiwd Prostitution, and Chiwd Pornography 2000,[19] de Worst Forms of Chiwd Labor Convention 1999,[19] and The Hague Convention on de Protection of Chiwdren and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption 1993.[19]

France is in cooperation wif aww de major treaties deawing wif chiwdren rights. It has in pwace severaw mechanisms to monitor de impwementation of de 1989 Convention on de Rights of de Chiwd, in particuwar, an ombudsman for chiwdren, uh-hah-hah-hah.[19]

Greece has various waws and a number of measures and services to promote and advance de rights of chiwdren, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 2002, de Greek Parwiament adopted a new waw on human trafficking; in 2003 de juveniwe system was reformed; in 2006 an additionaw waw was created to combat intra-famiwy viowence which states a prohibition of corporaw punishment of chiwdren, uh-hah-hah-hah.[19]

There is a wong history of chiwdren's rights in de U.S.[20] Many chiwdren's rights advocates in de U.S. today advocate for a smawwer agenda dan deir internationaw peers. According to de U.S, for de purposes of de present Convention, a chiwd means every human being bewow de age of eighteen years unwess under de waw appwicabwe to de chiwd, majority is attained earwier. Groups predominatewy focus on chiwd abuse and negwect, chiwd fatawities, foster care, youf aging out of foster care, preventing foster care pwacement, and adoption.[21] A wongstanding movement promoting youf rights in de United States has made substantiaw gains in de past. Refer to de [20]Convention of de Rights of a Chiwd.

The Chiwdren's Rights Movement assert dat it is de case dat chiwdren have rights which aduwts, states and government have a responsibiwity to uphowd. The UK maintains a position dat UNCRC is not wegawwy enforceabwe and is hence 'aspirationaw' onwy - awbeit a 2003 ECHR ruwing states: "The human rights of chiwdren and de standards to which aww governments must aspire in reawizing dese rights for aww chiwdren are set out in de Convention on de Rights of de Chiwd." (Extract from Sahin v Germany, Grand Chamber judgment of de ECHR, Juwy 8, 2003). 18 years after ratification, de four Chiwdren's Commissioners in de devowved administrations have united in cawwing for adoption of de Convention into domestic wegiswation, making chiwdren's rights wegawwy enforceabwe..

The United NationsConvention on de Rights of de Chiwd has 54 articwes, each outwining a different right. They cover four different groupings of rights; survivaw, protection, devewopment and participation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[21]
The Convention estabwishes a standard premise for de chiwdren's rights movement. It has been ratified by aww but two countries; de United States and Souf Sudan.[22][23] The US administration under Bush opposed ratifying de Convention, stating dat dere were "serious powiticaw and wegaw concerns dat it confwicts wif US powicies on de centraw rowe of parents, sovereignty, and state and wocaw waw."[24]

Presentwy, dere are at weast dirty countries dat have some kind of non-aduwt structure of parwiament, wheder nationawwy or in cities, viwwages or schoows. Many chiwdren's parwiaments, especiawwy in weawdier nations, are oriented more toward chiwdren's education in powitics dan toward de actuaw exercise of power in aduwt powiticaw systems.[25]

On de oder hand, some chiwdren's parwiaments do exercise a degree of powiticaw power. One of de first chiwdren's parwiaments, set up in de 1990s in viwwage schoows in Rajasdan, India, invowves chiwdren aged six to fourteen ewecting chiwd representatives who have been abwe to make genuine differences for deir communities. Some chiwdren's parwiaments, such as in de city of Barra Mansa in Braziw, have extensive powers over chiwdren's issues and controw parts of de government budget.[26]

ROOSE, R., & BOUVERNE-DE BIE, M. (2007). Do Chiwdren Have Rights or Do Their

Rights Have to be Reawised? The United Nations Convention on de Rights of de Chiwd as a Frame of Reference for Pedagogicaw Action, uh-hah-hah-hah. Journaw of Phiwosophy of Education, 41(3), 431-443. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2007.00568.x